Family and Youth Support Association Formerly Waltham Forest Somali Women Association ANNUAL ACCOUNTS & REPORT 2021-22
Directors Foreword The year April 2021 to March 2022 was a successful year for the organisation. We supported our local people tIough our various services and activities. The effect of the Pandemic highlighted many situations of need in our community, there were issues of confidence in authority, fear and anxiety of getting the right help, doing things alone without direction and advice But finally coming out in public and rcjoining the activities of the organisation was a very satisfying event for all of us These reports set out in detsil how we continue to help build strono academic foundation for our children and young people through our supplementary school classes. How we supported adults with their difficulties in getting housing, financial welfare support including diffjculties with the introduction of Universal Credit which has now rolled out in the borough.and through our support surgeries. With the funding from Yapp charitable trust We helped adults gain vital skills and qualifications through our courses and classes. as we sensed increased opportunities for employment for our young people. Most of these activities were organised between September 2021 and March 2022 while observing social distancing which resulted in high costs due to restricted class sizes and the nos of young people who were interested Our volunteers played very important roles in supplementing the paid tutors in all activities We hope next year activities will be even more effective and beneficial to all who will take part Services - Advice surgeries One of critical services include the advice surgeries to local residents. This involves support to help with issues like homelessness & housing, immigration, welfare. Although support is available during any time the office is open, there is a dedicated session on Wednesday's. This short session has seen support given to over 18 individuals with just under 100 cases. Done through telephone contacts and zoom meetings The most common cases in the past year include: Welfare: This includes various topics like disability issues, tax credits and housing benefit. We are now starting to see an increase in Universal Credit queries. This has recently been rolled out to Walthamstow and some residents have come to us to understand it and for help with issues revolving around the use of the online system and incorrect process of inforniation. Housing: This has mainly been repairs but also includes rent. It still continues to surprise us at how slowly the council, housing associations and private landlords deal with repair issues. We have made progress on issues when staff continue to help tenants pursue queries, We do not have the resources to do this on all cases. But thankfully the council has new contractors who are providing repair services with good monitoring of progress. Immigration: Due to a lot of uncertainty, we have had a lot of queries related to immigration. People are generally keen on getting a settlcd status and/or British citizenship. We also M'ould like to thank the contributions from other organisations like Citizens Advice Bureau and the local MP/councillors for their support.
Services - Supplementary Classes The supplementary Classes ¢onlinued to run as in the past >'ears and have supported children and young people build their skills and lay a foundation to be 5ucccssful in a¢ad¢mic work. Classes have been run to primary and secondary snents in the wre subjects. Maths, English and Science. The success of the classes is in part due to excellent t¢a¢hers we have supporting the children. They are qualified 8nd eXrienced professionals who leach in schoolOcol_1eges luniversities. This means that we provide a better level of s¢rvi¢e compared to other privately run tuition s¢rvices. Our support to children and young people extends from just the classroom. We suptKyrt parents with their ¢hildren by visiting with them to school meetings to understand student needs as well as help with any issues. We continue to maintain strong networks with schools. School break and holiday activities Due to the reduction in funding we have not been able to these exciting and beneficial sessions for ComEnunity Youth Program as extensively as prcvious. W¢ managed to run One day at the Ih'illiam Morris Community Centre and this was not very well attended duc to wi¢ertainty as to whether it will be allowed to go on So publicity was not intensive But it was a pleasant m¢eting and the young people enjoy Cultural Classes Children and Young people have also attended our cultural ¢lasses. This helps students build an Lind¢rst2nding of their culture and history. We have seen greater community cohesion from the Children and young people that have ben¢fit¢d from this serv&ce over the y&ws. Services- Courses for Adults In the I1 year we have run a vlets. of cours¢s for adults to support in the development of our users to help th¢m gatn tbe skills to increase their chances of employment or starting their own business. Health and Social Care- This has run at level 3 and has seen 18 students enToI throughout the year. We have supported students find work related to the course in schools and local organisations. Childcare- This has at level 3 and has seen io students enrol throughout the year. There were stud-nts who enrolled after successfully completing Level 2 previously. We have also supported SdeThts rd work related to the course in schools and local organisations.
ESOL alld sewing- This innovative combination of learning was run during the past year with support from the William Morris Big Local Fund. Feedback from the course was positive with people saying they gained some useful skills and felt more confident in their English. We hope we will be able to run a similar session as soon as finances permit. Our Finances We have a long way to go to get back to our past year,s achievements Our volunteer Co- ordinator is under pressure to secure funding for her post without which she, of necesssity, cannot commit herself to full involvement as she has to find means of supporting herself. The work of the volunteers have been indispensable and to great extent have prevented the organisation from closing. But there is a new found desire to work harded The concentration now is towards securing funding and the committee will be directing their efforts to that end Our Plans for the future Our main effort will be directed towards fulfilling our commitment with Yapp Foundatioii and delivering on the projects We will continue to run the cultural classes, the supplementary schools and the English language classes We will try to run the Esol & the Sewing classes for the parents wishing to improve their English and learn a new skill To date we are not sure whether Waltham Forest & Tower Hamlet councils will be restarting funding after the pandemic and we will contacting other funders The William Morris Centre will be ceIebrating the Queen's 70 years on the throne in 6 June this year with a street party andwe will betaking part Signed on behalf of the Trustees Dr Faduma Hussein (Chairperson) Date 25 May 2022